Helga Königsdorf(click on names to see more mathematical fiction
by the same author)

...

A pure mathematician at an East German research facility has already moved (not entirely by choice) to a technical institute when his paper on a crisis ["Krise"] in number theory is published. So, the research facility is embarrassed to receive a letter from Soviet officials congratulating them on having such an impressive employee.

This story appears in the collection "Meine ungehörigen Träume" in 1978, though it was probably also published earlier. (If you know the original publication date, please let me know so I can update the entry.) It does not appear to have ever been translated into English. I am very grateful to Ingrid Voigt for bringing this author and her mathematical fiction to my attention and to Hauke Reddmann for taking the time to read and review it for me. Here are some of their remarks:

Contributed by
Ingrid Voigt

A suggestion for your MathFiction collection.
Many of the short stories of German writer Helga Königsdorf would
qualify.
She was both a mathematician and a writer, quite a bit of her work is
set in
the "Institut für Zahlographie" - "Institute for Numbergraphy".

Contributed by
Hauke Reddmann

It is tempting to read too much
into the work of Helga Königsdorf, mathematician and
writer, who survived the Nazis, the GDR, broken ideals
and Parkinsons disease (and recently died in 2014 at age 75).
She was one of the many who believed socialism to be
a good thing and only the real existing one being faulty.
Liability of the scientist and feminism were a main
theme in her work, but given that her husband and son
are mathematicians too, there is surprisingly little math
in her stories.

"Meine ungehörigen Träume" (1978) - Contains the short stories
"Lemma 1" and "Krise" which could be termed Social Math
(in analogy to Social Fiction, a category of SF).
Content: If I'd botched a lemma, so there, I'm an amateur.
If a capitalist mathematician botches a lemma, it might *very*
theoretically endanger his job. If a communist mathematician
botches a lemma and ruins the 5 Year Plan...The botchess
is rather lucky that her superiors, who signed the botchery
without looking, have to take most of the flak. "Krise" is
of similar content - under communism, *everything* was
political.

(Note: This is just one work of
mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more
works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Krise [Crisis]

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one: